The Battle is Over (For Now Anyway)
by Lycosolen
Summary: Post 3x16. After the battle, exhaustion caught Bryan off guard (Nathan x Bryan – so don't like, don't read).


**Author's Notes and Warnings:**

So… this little thing caught me by surprise. I just finished watching the 3 seasons of the show not too long ago and, even though we didn't see a lot of them, I really enjoyed seeing Bryan and Nathan together.

So… obviously, there is romance between two guys – don't like it, don't read it –, but it's nothing really graphic (a few kisses mostly). It's probably a little – too much? – cheesy… and I had a rough time with the dialogue towards the end; it doesn't seem to flow as well as the rest, but I've been on it for a couple of weeks already, so I posted it anyway…

Also, I am not a doctor, so I'm sorry if anything that has to do with the medical aspect is not totally accurate. "T" also for some language.

I don't remember if the room where the fight took place had a name in the show, but I called it the Council Room.

Good reading... hopefully! 

* * *

After the battle, after Octavia had exerted her revenge on Pike and left the room, everyone that was still able to stand tended to the wounded or took care of the bodies lying around. Off to the side, Bryan was slightly swaying; his left leg was hurting, throbbing to the rhythm of his heart, and, even though he had eventually sided with his boyfriend on this whole thing, he was still shocked by what had happened to Pike.

Maybe the man hadn't been right about killing the army of Grounders and Lincoln, but he had still saved his life and many of the other people from Farm Station after the Ark had crashed on Earth; Bryan couldn't forget about that, and that's why he had apologized to the late Chancellor earlier. Shaking himself out of these dark thoughts, he turned his head around, hoping to see Nathan, remembering, at the same time, that he had sent his boyfriend away so he could help the others.

Suddenly, a wave of dizziness hit him hard; he felt light-headed, the room beginning to move in front of his eyes. Putting his right hand on the solid surface behind him, he closed his eyes for a second, letting the darkness soothe him. When he opened them up again, he was sitting on the floor, his back against the wall, near the fireplace. He looked down towards his leg; his wound had begun bleeding again and a small pool was forming on the ground around his knee. Bryan tried to call for help, but the room was still spinning around him and his vision started to fill with black spots, so he closed his eyes again.

" _Just for a little while_ ," his addled brain thought before Bryan let the darkness overtake him. 

**THE 100**

Nathan was almost running towards the Council Room, after helping some people getting down of the tower; there were still a few others to help getting out to the ground before he could go back to Akardia with Bryan. Thinking about his boyfriend, he was surprised not to see him when he returned to the room where the battle had taken place. Looking around, he was about to call out his name… and froze when he spotted him on the floor, near the place where he had left him earlier.

"Bryan…" he whispered and ran towards the other man.

He stopped abruptly when he got near him and knelt down next to his body, slumped against the wall. Taking his face gently between his hands, he carefully turned it towards him so he could have a better look. His face was pale, much paler than before, and his skin was getting cold, but he was breathing. Nathan tried to wake him up by patting him on the cheeks, but to no avail. He then replaced his boyfriend's head against the wall and checked his gunshot wound. Blood had seeped through the bandage around his leg and was slowly dripping down onto the floor.

"Shit… Abby!" he shouted, not turning his face away from his boyfriend's, trying, once more, to rouse him by shaking his shoulder and patting his face again, a little more forcefully. "Bryan, wake up, damn it…" he swore quietly.

"Miller, what's going on? What's wrong with him?"

Nathan turned his head to the left, towards the voice.

"Bellamy, where's Abby?" he asked frantically, letting go of Bryan's face to apply pressure onto the wound.

"I'm here!" said the familiar voice of the woman behind Bellamy. "What's wrong?"

"His wound is bleeding again and I can't wake him up," Nathan explained.

"Okay… let me see," Abby said, kneeling on the other side of the pale man, putting her hands on Nathan's and pushing them away gently.

She then ripped Bryan's pants a little more near the wound so she could see better.

"Alright," she said. "The wound opened up again, so I'll need to clean it and stitch it up."

"Why isn't he waking up?" asked Nathan, worried.

"It's probably just a combination of exhaustion and blood loss. Bellamy, could you find some blankets or something so we can lay him down on them? I'll take care of him here and he can get some rest before getting back to Arkadia, okay?" Abby explained to the distressed man.

Nathan nodded briefly, not totally reassured, but feeling a little better about his boyfriend's condition. While Abby went to get a medical bag – which had been in the Rover Clarke and the others had taken to get to Polis –, Miller and Bellamy, who had just came back with some blankets, got Bryan gently onto the floor, Nathan making sure to hold the younger man's head with his hand that wasn't covered in blood and Bellamy rearranging the unconscious man's legs on the blankets.

When Abby came back a minute later, she got to work quickly, beginning by cleaning the entry and exit wounds; the injured man had been lucky it had been a 'through and through', especially after all this climbing to get to the top of the tower. Bellamy helped Nathan to stand up and stirred him away from Bryan a little so the doctor could work better.

"Hey, he's going to be okay," he said to his friend, putting a gentle hand onto Miller's shoulder, squeezing lightly.

"Yeah… yeah, he is," Nathan sighed, still worried.

He was about to put his hands on his face, to get rid of the weariness around his eyes, when he caught sight of the blood… _Bryan's_ blood.

"Here, take this," Bellamy said, giving him one of the smaller blankets that hadn't been used.

Cleaning himself up, Miller approached the place where his boyfriend was lying on and sat near his right hip, while Abby was stitching the wound on the left side. Nathan's hands were slightly shaking when he put his left one onto the other man's brow, smoothing his hair back.

"Help me get him on his side," Abby said suddenly, distracting Nathan from the unconscious man's face. "I have to stitch the exit wound now."

Miller nodded and helped the doctor turn Bryan on his right side, massaging the boy's neck softly with a trembling hand. When Abby began to insert the needle into the skin, Bryan's eyes opened into slits and the injured man moaned almost quietly.

"Bryan… hey… it's okay, you're going to be alright," said Nathan, relieved to see his boyfriend's eyes opened, even if just slightly.

He saw Bryan's lips move, his mouth opening to say something. But before he could utter a word, Nathan put a finger gently on his lips, stopping him from talking.

"Shh… Just get some rest, alright? Abby's taking care of you."

He then took Bryan's left hand into his right one, rubbing slow circles into his palm. Bryan's eyes slid close again, the younger man too tired to really do anything else. He knew both he and Nathan were safe; that was all that mattered.

"That's it, I'm finished. I just need to put some new bandages and we'll elevate his leg a little. We should let him rest before you try anything to get him down, okay?" Abby said.

Nathan nodded and thanked her. After Bryan was all bandaged up, lying down on his back again with his injured leg slightly elevated by the blankets, Miller took his coat off and put it over his boyfriend's body that had started to shake a little despite still wearing his own jacket. He then put his right hand near Bryan's heart and whispered: "You're going to be okay."

"Are _you_ going to be okay, Miller?" asked Bellamy, softly.

Nathan lifted his head to look at the other man; he hadn't known his friend was still there.

"Yeah. I will be… when we finally get out of this crazy town."

Bellamy snorted and shook his head.

"Yeah, I hear you."

Then the dark-haired man left, patting Miller's shoulder on his way to Clarke and the others that were still in the Council Room. 

**THE 100**

An hour later, Bryan still hadn't woken up, but he now seemed to be resting instead of being unconscious. Miller, Bellamy and Murphy worked on making a kind of stretcher that could be easily manipulated on the way down the tower.

It had been decided that Clarke, Bellamy, Kane, Murphy, with his new girlfriend, Emori, and a few others would stay in Polis for a little while, to try and deal with the aftermath of what had happened; the others from the Ark would leave for Arkadia. Abby had wanted to stay with her daughter, but there were wounded people who needed her, so she and Jackson, now freed from the City of Light, were leaving with the others. Jaha, still in shock it seemed, would stay in Polis; he would be interrogated.

There were only a few vehicles available, so they were used to bring the people that were more severely injured and couldn't walk, including Indra and the king of the Ice Nation, Roan.

Finally, the Sky People were returning to Arkadia. 

**THE 100**

Bryan was waking up, trying to make sense of the movement he felt beneath him. He opened his eyes slowly and looked around, recognizing the interior of the Rover they had taken to get to Polis. There were two other persons that he could see inside the vehicle, but they seemed to be asleep.

Frowning, not remembering how he got there in the first place, he began to straighten himself into a sitting position, pushing up on his elbows, but, then, a hand came up on his chest from behind him, pushing him back down gently, but firmly, on the blankets he was lying on.

"What do you think you're doing, huh?"

The familiar voice had came from somewhere behind him. A few seconds later, Nathan's face came up in Bryan's field of vision. The younger man smiled, looking up at his boyfriend.

"Hey…" he began, his voice a little rasp, and stopped, seeing the worried expression on the other man's face. "What's wrong?"

Nathan's eyes were scanning Bryan's body before coming back to his face. A strained smile came up on his lips.

"Nothing," Miller replied. He then put his right hand onto the young man's shoulder, his fingers carefully stroking the side of his neck. Bryan turned slightly into the touching gesture and looked at his boyfriend.

"You were worried about me," he said, an amused tone in his voice.

"Damn right, I was," Nathan answered forcefully.

Bryan then looked more closely at the other man's face; even with his dark-skinned complexion, he looked kind of pale and there were red circles around his eyes. The wounded man stayed quiet for a moment before replying truthfully: "I'm sorry, Nate."

He took his boyfriend's hand that was on his shoulder and kissed it lightly.

"What happened, anyway?" he asked. "How did I get here?"

"After the battle," Nathan explained, "you passed out. Abby said it was just exhaustion and blood loss. She cleaned and stitched your wound up and said you'd be okay…"

"See, there's nothing to be worried about," Bryan answered, interrupting the other man.

"She said… you'd be okay if you rested and," he continued, "I intend to make you do just that."

Bryan sighed, knowing when not to push his boyfriend's buttons, and smiled tiredly.

"So… you're going to take care of me, is that it?"

He then yawned, his eyes too tired to stay open anymore, even if he wanted to. Before sleep took him over, he felt Nathan's lips on his for an instant; his boyfriend then put his forehead against his while lying down next to him in the cramped space, and whispered:

"That's exactly what I plan to do. Sleep, now."

"I like it when you're bossy," Bryan murmured.

He swore he could feel Nathan smiling before the darkness took him over one more time. 

**THE 100**

Bryan woke up again right before they arrived to Akardia. Miller, Abby and the others were soon welcomed by Monty and Harper who were waiting by the gates.

"Bryan? What happened to him?" Harper asked, frowning and looking at Nathan while she and Monty helped him get Bryan out of the Rover on the stretcher.

"He was shot in the leg," Nathan answered, not totally but still a little curtly.

Harper snorted, looking at the Asian boy beside her, while they made their way into the Ark with the other two men.

"Something funny?" Bryan said, frowning slightly and trying not to wince while being transported into Arkadia.

"No, just… Jasper got shot in the leg, too… by Monty," she replied, a little smile on her lips. "Now, he can't shut up about it. Says it will make a great battle scar to impress everyone."

Bryan laughed softly. Nathan smiled tightly and said: "Well, he seems to get a little better, isn't he?"

"Yeah… I think he'll be okay, eventually. We even made peace," Monty replied as they were entering the medical section of the Ark.

There, Jasper was lying on a bed, chatting with Raven who went to help their friends get Bryan on another bed when she saw him came in on a stretcher.

"What happened to you?" she asked.

"Same thing that happened to him, apparently," answered Bryan, pointing at Jasper. "Thanks," he sighed tiredly after he was situated on the bed.

"What? You've been shot by Monty?" Jasper said, laughing.

"No, by a 'chipped Kane'," answered Miller. "It got infected and… whatever. He needs rest."

"Nate, I'll be fine," whispered Bryan, squeezing his boyfriend's hand gently.

"Huh huh… So, you need anything? Abby asked me earlier if I could help her bring the others inside."

"No, I'm okay. Go on."

"Is _he_ okay?" Harper asked after Nathan had left the room. "He seems a bit on edge or something."

"Yeah, your boyfriend needs to relax a little; it's over. Alie's gone, the City of Light with her…" Jasper said, resigned.

"Don't listen to him, Bryan. He's still a bit messed up about that," Monty said, passing his hand affectionately over his best friend's head. "Seriously, though, what's going on with Miller? He said something about your wound getting infected…"

Bryan sighed, his eyes closing briefly before opening up again. He settled himself further into the blankets and Nathan's coat, which he still had tucked around him since he had woken up in the Rover.

"It did. Abby took care of it. Then we went into battle to give Clarke time to stop the A.I. and, after it was all over, I… He found me, passed out from exhaustion and blood loss…"

"Aw… He's worried about you," said Raven who was now sitting on Jasper's bed, near his feet.

"I guess…" Bryan said.

"Miller will be fine," Harper replied. "You know, he changed, to some extent, since you came back. I mean, no offense, but he was kind of a moron when we landed on Earth, and then Mount Weather happened; I think it made him grow up a little, knowing other people depended on him; maybe not like Bellamy or Clarke, but still… And, having you here, I think it makes him realize he has someone else to care for that he doesn't want to lose."

Seeing Harper look strangely at Monty, Bryan said, smiling: "You sure you're talking about Nathan, here?"

Harper rolled her eyes and replied: "What I just said can apply to other people, too, you know."

"Hmm… yeah," Bryan sighed, his eyes closing against his will.

"Mmm… okay. We'll let you sleep," Harper said, watching Bryan trying to stay awake.

"Seems like the only thing I've been doing all day…" whispered the injured man.

Harper snorted softly and added: "Well, we wouldn't want Miller to go all 'protective alpha' on us now, would we? Besides, I think Abby should take a look at Jasper and Monty, too. So… rest up, Bryan."

That was the last thing he heard before the darkness took over once again. 

**THE 100**

A short meeting had taken place to which, among others, Raven, Harper, Monty, Jasper and Nathan had assisted to so everyone involved would be updated about what had happened in Polis and Arkadia. There would be more news when Clarke and the others would come back.

It was getting dark outside when Bryan was finally settled into his and Nathan's room.

When Miller climbed into his bed, he was bone-tired, having helped Abby get all the injured people out of the vehicles, making sure everyone was settling alright and finding time to check up on Bryan here and there. But now that he could finally rest his body, his mind wouldn't let him be. He kept thinking about the events of the day, what he – everyone, really – could have lost…

There had been too many losses recently. Almost everybody had suffered the death of a loved one since the crash of the Ark: Finn, Monroe, Lincoln, Lexa (even if he hadn't known her, he knew her death had affected Clarke greatly), Sinclair, Maya, Gina; Monty had to kill his own mother… and there had been a lot more.

"Hmm… You're thinking too loud," Bryan murmured and yawned, getting closer to his boyfriend's body, trying not to jostle his left leg too much.

Nathan sighed, gathering the younger man closer to him so he was lying on his chest, his head over his heart.

"I know," Nathan said. "I'm just… tired, you know? We just won a battle, but it feels like a war is still coming – and, from what little Bellamy told me before we left, there is –, and… like you said, I just hope there'll be a time when we don't have to fight anymore. I hope…"

He stopped himself from saying '…that we'll both be there to enjoy it', feeling too emotional to get that out right now without crying, but Bryan seemed to understand. His boyfriend took his right hand between his left one and kissed it lightly.

"There's nothing we can do about that now," Bryan said. "I'm here, you're here. The only thing we can do is make the best of what we have right now and hope that it will get even better. We'll just make ourselves sick if we keep thinking about the 'what ifs'."

"Yeah… I know. You're right," Nathan whispered, putting his other hand in Bryan's hair, his fingers threading carefully through the soft dark locks, holding him within his arms as if he was never letting go, and he hoped with all he got, to whoever could be watching out there, that he wouldn't lose this man he held close to his heart.


End file.
